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Camp speaks at Tea Party rally

Ways and Means Chairman Dave Camp (R-Mich.) is among the lawmakers who will attend a rally to “audit” the IRS tomorrow afternoon on Capitol Hill — a move that the top Democrat on his panel is questioning.

“I am disappointed that Chairman Camp is scheduled to participate in the Glenn Beck rally,” Rep. Sander Levin, the top Democrat on the committee, told POLITICO in an email. “We launched together a needed bipartisan investigation and it should not veer from that.”

Levin added that he hopes Camp will reconsider his appearance before the rally begins. He said participating in the rally sends the wrong signal that the Ways and Means investigation is becoming political.

“We should continue to focus on the facts, and the facts alone,” he said.

Camp said his appearance is an effort to make sure that taxpayers are kept up to date on the status of the investigation. He said the misconduct at the IRS stood in the way of political groups looking to capitalize on their right to free speech and the rally on Wednesday bolsters that right.

“I think the more the public knows about what has happened here the better off we are,” Camp told POLITICO. “Part of what we want to make sure is that people are free to speak out”

A spokeswoman for Camp said the purpose of his appearance at the rally is to give a status update on the investigation.

“Folks are very concerned about it back home,” Huelskamp told POLITICO. “To them it goes to the very heart of their concerns and distrust with Washington.”

The Kansas Republican said he doesn’t think the investigation into the IRS for targeting nonprofit applications of conservative groups for extra scrutiny is partisan. But, he said his motivation for joining the event is to put pressure on the Obama administration to reveal who was involved and just how much administration officials knew.

“Whoever is running the White House, they shouldn’t be misusing the IRS to punish political opponents,”Huelskamp said.